Festivals... Truck Festival 2018 and other things.

Two three-day festivals down and still three to go!
One of the great things about festivals is the expectation of seeing favourite artists once again. The other, perhaps more exciting still, is those complete surprises; the ones that blindside you and here is one such from last weekend.
Most festivals of any size run a competition for new artists with the prize(s) being a performance slot. Truck Festival is no exception. Once in a while this can be disappointing. This was most certainly not one of those occasions. Almost all original material and always beautifully done.

Charlotte Hackett, Market stage, Truck Festival, 21 July 2018.

This was not to be the first nor the last of such welcome surprises. There has been a big discussion in the media about the relative lack of female artists at UK festivals, especially in headline roles the last year or two. It is a valid point I think and Truck Festival isn't at all good on that count.
On the other hand it is often not the headline acts that make me want to go to a festival anyway. On that premise then Truck Festival actually hosted several very good acts that were either all-female or female-fronted. Given that writing about it seems a pretty obvious thing to do despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that I am male.

Truck has a bit of history when it comes to all female grunge/garage rock as I recall. Here is another manifestation of that.

London-based trio Hey Charlie. Market stage, Truck Festival, 22 July 2018.

Originally formed as an art college project in Brighton in 2014, Dream Wife took wing and perhaps surprisingly it is the only one of these three acts to have yet released a (self-titled)  LP 'Dream Wife' early in 2018, which arguably just goes to show just what new talent is on offer here.

Market stage, Truck Festival, 21 July 2018.

Originally from Iceland, Rakel Mjöll on lead vocals.